With the airline no longer in existence, Amex finally pulled the plug on their co-branded credit card partnership with Kingfisher. All existing cardholders have been sent out individual letters (not emails, not announcements on the website…) about the decision of Amex to part ways with KFA. This could partly also be the influence of their recent partnership with Jet Airways for a credit card.
Here are the key details of what will happen now on for the existing KFA credit card holders:
- Amex is replacing all the KFA cards with the Amex Platinum Travel card and all the card holders will receive the new card in their mail in a few days from now. Here are some details of the Amex Platinum Travel card. Till then, you can continue to use your KFA CC.
- In 2011, Amex and KFA had decided to sweep all MR to KingMiles automatically. In 2012, given the unstable condition of the carrier, Amex reversed the decision. However, they are going to do nothing about the existing KingMiles accrued.
- No further benefits will accrue as a consequence of the use of your KFA co-branded CC. So, for instance, the gold card and vouchers benefit goes away, anyways, the airline is defunct now so the loyalty program does not matter. As for the spend-linked tickets, if you have any left, you need to wait till Kingfisher takes wings again, if it does. I used up mine for the first year in 2011 itself.
- For those members interested in getting a Jet Airways American Express Credit Card instead, the bank is offering it to them at a special reduced annual fee of Rs. 7,500 plus taxes. They do qualify for the 20,000 JP Miles welcome gift.
Further the FAQs state that the travel benefits of the new Platinum Travel Credit Card will be computed from your last year’s start or renewal date, and will be made available to you within 90 days of new card issuance. So, Amex has not exactly left you in the lurch totally, but partly.
If you have any questions, do drop me a line or a comment here and I’ll try my best to answer.
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Tags: American Express, Amex, co-branded, Credit Card, KFA, Kingfisher
There was a lot of discussion going on about reviving Kingfisher Airlines in the past months, after the airline stopped operations in October 2012.
Over the past few weeks and months, it made noises that it was serious about getting back in the aviation game, and was going to pay its employees as well before it could get started again. Employees were given some bit of their salaries, 3 months of the 7 months outstanding before they returned to work. Eventually, the Indian regulator got into the act and ‘suspended’ Kingfisher’s airline operation license. They also refused to approve the winter schedule of the airline.
Vijay Mallya has been trying to offload his stake in the airline to another investor, possibly Etihad, to be able to get the cash to restart operations. However, there have been no signals for them from Etihad yet, and it is possible Etihad will bend towards Jet Airways, who also needs the money, but is a flying airline and could help with Etihad’s plans of world dominance.
It eventually came down to the wire, where Vijay Mallya wanted to invest Rs. 625 Crores (~115 Million $) to restart the airline with 7 aircraft, and his crew wrote a letter to the Indian regulator DGCA asking for a renewal of the license. Not budging, the regulator asked hard questions, such as the plans to pay back the over $ 1.5 billion outstanding to lease companies, staff, airport operators, fuel companies and others. The airline does not have answers to those hard questions yet. And while they were trying to sweet talk the regulator, their license expired as of 31 December 2012.
Though the airline has now found a new nuance in the law, where it can revive its license within 2 years and is downplaying the situation, as of this moment, Kingfisher is officially dead. Like I said earlier, so long Kingfisher!
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Tags: IT, KFA, Kingfisher Airlines
I initially thought that Kingfisher was not going to get out of the latest mess they got themselves in, but looks like finally the airline owner Vijay Mallya is more than eager to get it back on track. He was initially missing in action, and got branded an absconder by the media because he just wouldn’t come back to India on the next day of the crisis brewing into a lockout and grounding of the airline.
However, when they seriously promised the 7-months unpaid employees 3 months salary within a month, like most of India, I believed this to be a hogwash so that Mr. Mallya did not have to face an embarrassment at the Indian Grand Prix, the Indian race on the F1 calendar. Employees had threatened to show up and protest at the venue, after all.
Kingfisher’s offer to the employees was to pay up 3 months of salaries in a deferred plan, where they got 1-month pay rightaway (within 24 hours), another month pay within 7 days (which was credited today, as per someone inside the airline who confirmed this), and a third month of pay before November 13. Another 3 months of pay would be paid when the airline is recapitalised. More money is promised to come their way before Christmas. However, this cashflow should help the employees who have had to resort to borrowing from friends and family to survive the day. Employees have already come back to work, while the airline is still grounded since their license was suspended by the Indian regulator.
Now, everyone has swung into action trying to recover their money, including Indian airports, revenue authorities, etc. who have money on the table. However, the banks, which have about 1.5 billion $ of equity and debt in the airline, are still trying to figure their way into recovering their money. Their exposure is clearly much larger than that of the others.
However, Vijay Mallya seems determined to revive the airline, so he has been making the rounds of the regulator trying to talk them into reinstate the license so that they could fly again. He is even okay with letting go off some of his money-spinning alcohol empire to keep this airline going. He has gone on record to state that he will use the Kingfisher group’s funds to revive the airline, though nobody has answers as to how will KFA ensure no more irregularities in schedule and safety. There are news reports stating that he may be able to get it off the ground again by end of November 2012.
More news when it happens. In the meanwhile I am just happy that Kingfisher employees are finally getting paid! And if it gets off the air again, they should consider calling themselves the Phoenix airlines rather than Kingfisher this time around!!
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Tags: IT, KFA, Kingfisher, Kingfisher Airlines
